Utah Jazz: Pundits still sleeping on Gobert as an All-Star are crazy

Although Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert continues to win over hoops fans and experts alike on the daily, some are still sleeping on the 2018 NBA DPOY.

When his pro career quietly began with the 27th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert wasn’t an obvious star in the making. Sure, he had crazy size and length, but in a league that was trending toward space, pace and the three ball, a lumbering big with seemingly limited offensive upside wasn’t turning many heads.

Sure enough, the big Frenchman did become a star. Two years ago, he was second-team All-NBA. Last summer, the league recognized him as the 2018 Defensive Player of the Year. And he, more than any player, is responsible for the Jazz advancing to the West semis in back-to-back years.

All that said, some people still aren’t getting the memo. A handful of hold-out hoops pundits continue to sleep on the Stifle Tower, and their stances on his play are bordering on disrespect.

Over on our sister site, Hoops Habit, Mitchell Hansen (catch his work HERE) made the case over the weekend that the Jazz are undeserving of All-Star representation. We’ll go over why that’s just a silly thing to say later; for now, i want to hone in on this statement  —

"With the All-Star voting coming to a close in the next couple of days, it’s hard to make a real case for [Donovan] Mitchell or Gobert to have a spot in the showcase next month over the rest of the talent in the West."

Hansen also inferred that you can’t even make a real case for Gobert as a top 10 player among the West’s frontcourt group alone.

To that, I say challenge accepted!

Now, I understand that a traditional center and defensive player is doomed to fail some people’s eye test in this kind of debate, so how about we formulate our argument around something that cannot be denied — stats. Because for all the talk about how Gobert’s impact goes beyond the numbers, those numbers actually paint a glowing picture of his efforts.

And I’d say ranking in the top 10 league-wide by several different statistical measures is probably an OK indicator of top 10 status positionally, which bodes well for Gobert, because the number of categories in which he ranks at or near the top of the NBA is immense.

Here’s a sampling for you; accurate as of this writing —

• Blocks Per Game (2.0, sixth)
• Rebounds Per Game (13.1, fifth)
• Offensive RPG (3.6, eighth)
• Individual Defensive Rating (99.7, third)
• Defensive Win Shares (3.4, first)
• Defensive Box Plus/Minus (5.3, first)
• Defensive Real Plus/Minus (4.77, first)

By the way, those stats are just for defense and rebounding, which is all some people seem to think Gobert is good for. Here are some areas of offensive stardom —

• Field Goal Percentage (65.6, first)
• True Shooting Percentage (67.6, first)
• Individual Offensive Rating (132.5, second)
• Offensive Win Shares (4.8, sixth)
• Screen Assists Per Game (6.1, first)

That last one should be heeded by the crowd that thinks Gobert’s only contribution offensively is dunking the basketball. Gobert’s screens free up teammates for 14.1 points per game, which is also No. 1 across the Association. If you factor the 15 points per game he scores himself and the points he creates with passing assists in with the screen assists, Gobert has a hand in over 33 points per game of Utah’s offense.

That’s more than 30 percent of his team’s total output. For the record, Karl-Anthony Towns — an offensive star who made last year’s All-Star team and remains a player some people are taking ahead of Gobert — also measures out at around 30 percent by the same measures.

So much for just being a defensive player. Speaking of, here are some more top 10 rankings, this time just for overall awesomeness on both sides of the ball —

• Win Shares (second)
• Win Shares Per 48 (second)
• Value Over Replacement Player (fifth)
• Real Plus/Minus Wins (seventh)

I’d say that just about knocks out any argument stating Gobert isn’t a top 10 frontcourt player in the West. His numbers (which apparently aren’t eye-popping, per Hansen) look more like a top 10 player overall across the entire Association.

Now about that statement that the Jazz’s performance doesn’t warrant any All-Stars…

Consider that the Jazz are solidly in the West’s top eight despite playing what was objectively the league’s most difficult first-half schedule. Also — they are currently just two games out of third place in the conference; an ultra-deep conference in which 14 teams can still legitimately say they’re fighting for a playoff spot.

To say that a team in that position isn’t deserving of an All-Star goes beyond the illogical — and Gobert is the linchpin to the success.

The Jazz are currently fourth in the league in D-rating at 104.4, just 0.6 points/100 possessions behind the No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks. Gobert is the primary factor there — the Jazz concede just 100.3 points/100 possessions when he’s on the floor despite the fact that he’s constantly facing the opposition’s best players.

The Gobert-led D is the reason the Jazz are right in the hunt for a top four seed despite having an average offense.

Another note — of the NBA’s most used five-man lineup combinations (200-plus minutes), Utah’s unit of Donovan Mitchell, Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder and Gobert (who, again, is the linchpin) boasts a net rating of 15, which makes it the third best five-men crew in the entire league.

The Gobert effect is real, and it rates with the impact of MVP candidates and perennial All-NBAers.

One more factor Hansen cites in eliminating Gobert as an All-Star is the fan vote and popularity. But let’s not forget that the fans only have a hand in selecting the All-Star starters. Seven of the 12 spots are decided by the coaches vote. And it’s hard to see the people who know the game best ignoring the mass of information I just dropped. At the least, they’d be foolhardy to do so.

It probably doesn’t hurt that the Jazz are winning loads of games just as they prepare to vote.

Now, I don’t mean to pick on Hansen here — he does great work on the Jazz for a site on my own network and, really, there’s no guarantee Gobert gets a spot. However, with all due respect, the methodology he uses to eliminate Gobert as a possibility is flawed and indicative of an attitude that strangely continues to pervade a segment of the NBA intelligentsia.

Despite all evidence to the contrary…

In short, the pundits that continue to sleep on Gobert are crazy. Not only does he deserve an All-Star spot, but it would be a grave injustice if he didn’t get one.

Sorry, not sorry.